


The Burning Lady

by Akisame8



Series: Horizons [13]
Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Episode Related, Gauda Prime, Gen, Ghosts, Spooooooky, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-16 22:28:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12351828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akisame8/pseuds/Akisame8
Summary: Vila says theScorpiois haunted. Tarrant is skeptical—that is, until he fights to land a dying ship and sees the Burning Lady for himself.(October Horizon ghost story prompt.)





	The Burning Lady

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a spooky one based on the idea-prompt of a "ghostly encounter." It's also my first story with Tarrant as the main character. This is one of several October prompts and you can read everyone's great stories over on [Horizon.](http://www.blakes7online.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=2354&rowstart=0)

Vila claimed to have seen her. "She was in the cargo hold! I swear it!" He refused to go down below deck by himself. "She called my name!"  
  
    "You're confusing her with Cally," Tarrant had snapped and this had made Vila shut up and pour himself yet another soma with trembling hands.  
  
    Vila's drinking had become increasingly excessive. This was the most likely explanation for his hallucinations of a spectral woman on fire creeping about the lower decks. Of course Tarrant had laughed, shook his head and dismissed Vila's idiotic ranting...  
  
    Until he saw her himself.  
  
    Or perhaps he was hallucinating as well? The ship was burning up around him in its chaotic descent to the surface of Gauda Prime; perhaps it was the extreme oxygen deprivation or smoke inhalation or —  
  
    "It was _her,"_ Vila had said to him then with terror in his eyes. "It was Dr. Plaxton."  
  
    Just as Tarrant was struggling to turn the _Scorpio_ upright in freefall, the ship's lighting began to sputter and fail—except for a milky glow that he saw out of the corner of his eye which was becoming increasingly harsher, more glaring, closer. Fearing something near him might be on the verge of exploding, he made a quick turn of his head to assess the danger—  
  
    And there she stood.  
  
    He somehow heard her amused voice above the _Scorpio's_ metallic scream as the atmosphere pulled the ship down into the planet. "Ah, noble Tarrant. So you were the only one willing to die with the ship."  
  
    She was there, engulfed in a column of white flame, her eyes burning with plasma light, her grin terrible.  
  
    "You know you will need more than just talent to land your dead ship."  
  
    Tarrant could do nothing but grip his hands like claws on the controls as he felt her step closer, her glacial breath on his neck. Despite the fire coming from them, Plaxton's fingers were like ice as they slithered over Tarrant's hand in a terrifying caress.  
  
    "I am part of the _Scorpio_ now. Allow me to assist you, Tarrant. Together, we will land your burning lady."  
  
    He had no choice. She folded her hands atop his own and they both guided the ship's mad descent.  
  
    The _Scorpio_ rammed down into forested terrain and broke apart from within. Tarrant screamed as he toppled down further into the corpse of the ship. He finally came to be lying beside what was left of the stardrive that Plaxton had created, which had also destroyed her.  
  
    The burning ghost stood before him with a serene smile.  
  
    "I had hoped to have a final conversation with Avon, but I'm afraid he will be having an appointment with _another_ ghost."  
  
    And right before Tarrant fainted, he watched her burst into a blinding star-white pillar of flame. Her face melted, revealing the skull beneath which retained a hideous, triumphant grin.  
  
***  
  
    Slave sputtered and apologized and then died as the wreckage of the _Scorpio_ was fired upon from above. Injured, exhausted, Tarrant tried to crawl away to safety.  
  
    All at once, there was another figure looming over him, its curly-haired silhouette somehow reminding him of himself. His doppelganger? No, not exactly. This was an older, wearier, more bitter version of himself.  
  
    "Lie still, let them think you're dead," said the apparition.  
  
    He found himself heeding the advice of yet another supernatural creature offering assistance.  
  
    Plaxton may have been a product of his own imagination, but it was this new, very human ghost with its scarred, feral face that he found more terrifying.  
  
    Somehow he knew that this one was his angel of death.

**Author's Note:**

> This story references the episodes "Stardrive" and "Blake".


End file.
